For some reason, I had missed these stats (batting and pitching) from the Hall of Fame project for the candidates in the recent Negro Leagues special election. These can be looked at in conjunction with the stats on those already in the HOF included in the back of the Shades of Glory book.
Lots of interesting stuff here, including league averages (batting and slugging), although the two regions (east and west) are combined into a single average. That would be like combining National and American League averages, although of course in the Negro Leagues there was often substantial interleague or interregional play.
A new birthdate has been discovered fairly recently for new HOFer Jud Wilson. Riley’s Biographical Encyclopedia lists it as February 28, 1899, but now it has been changed to February 28, 1894. That gives Wilson one of the most singular career progressions by age that I’ve ever seen: he is essentially an unknown (though he is said to have served in World War I) until the age of 27, in 1921, when he’s first spotted (that I know of) playing for small independent or semipro teams in Washington, D.C. The following year he is picked up by the Baltimore Black Sox, who join the Eastern Colored League in 1923. At the age of 32 he moves from first base to third base to make room for new manager Ben Taylor (age 36). Wilson peaks (according to these statistics) from about 1925 to 1931 (ages 31 to 37), his very best seasons coming at ages 33 and 34. He continues to be one of the best hitters in the mid-1930s Negro National League (when the Negro Leagues contracted to one, high-quality league), into his early 40s. He then manages to hold onto a job with the best team in the Negro Leagues, the Homestead Grays, through the war years, until he finally retires in 1945—at the age of 51!
Back when it was thought he was born in 1899, his career followed a fairly normal path—starting with the Black Sox at 23, peaking at ages 28 and 29, lasting a long time but retiring at an age, 46, that isn’t unprecedented for great players in the Negro Leagues (Lloyd lasted until he was 48, Joe Williams until he was 47). Now Wilson is unusual in three ways: he’s a great hitter who remained completely unknown until the age of 27, despite playing on the east coast; he enjoys a sustained late peak in his mid-30s; and he plays longer than anybody but Satchel Paige.
So it will be very interesting to see what new biographical information the Hall of Fame project has got on him, especially about his late teens and early twenties. Bullet Rogan, who was born exactly seven months earlier than Wilson (July 28, 1893), was already a well-known ballplayer in Kansas City in 1911; Wilson doesn’t appear in history until 1921. So what was he doing for ten years?
UPDATE: I see from Wilson’s thread at the Hall of Merit (scroll down to post #15) that he was really born in 1897 (according to census records), but put 1894 on Social Security records so his benefits would start early. This is from the (extremely knowledgeable) Negro League expert who posts there under the name Gadfly. I keep forgetting and rediscovering this fact. Anyway, the Hall of Fame project apparently hasn’t gotten the memo on this yet.
UPDATE NO. 2: I found a Judson Wilson in the 1920 census for the District of Columbia who seems be our man: born in Virginia, parents born in Virginia, age 23 (ProQuest’s digitization gives his age as 28, but the handwritten census record clearly reads 23). He was single, and his occupation is listed as butcher in a meat market. I found one other Judson Wilson in D.C., as well as a handful of Ernest Wilsons (Jud’s real first name), but this guy fits the facts best.
UPDATE NO. 3: Wilson was counted on January 20, 1920. His birthdate is always given as February 28. Either his age was rounded up, or he was born in 1896, not 1897. I’ve been poking around in the 1910 census, looking for Ernests and Judsons in Virginia and D.C., but haven’t found anybody who fits the bill yet.
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